USS Paddle (SS-263)
 |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | USS Paddle (SS-263) |
| Builder: | Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut |
| Laid down: | 1 May 1942 |
| Launched: | 30 December 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 29 March 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 1 February 1946 |
| Recommissioned: | 31 August 1956 |
| Decommissioned: | 18 January 1957 |
| Struck: | 30 June 1968 |
| Fate: | Transferred to Brazil unmodified, 18 January 1957 |
| History | |
 Brazil
|
|
| Name: | Riachuelo (S–15) |
| Acquired: | 18 January 1957 |
| Struck: | March 1968 |
| Fate: | Sunk as a target around 30 June 1968 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Gato-class diesel-electric submarine |
| Displacement: | 1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced, 2,424 tons (2,460 t) submerged |
| Length: | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m) |
| Draft: | 17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced, 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged |
| Range: | 11,000 nm @ 10 kn (20,000 km @ 19 km/h) surfaced |
| Endurance: | 48 hours @ 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged, 75 days on patrol |
| Test depth: | 300 ft (90 m) |
| Complement: | 6 officers, 54 enlisted |
| Armament: |
|
USS Paddle (SS-263), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the paddle, a large ganoid fish of the Mississippi and its larger tributaries.
Paddle was laid down on 1 May 1942 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, Connecticut; launched on 30 December 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Goldye S. Fechteler, wife of later Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William M. Fechteler; and commissioned at New London on 29 March 1943, Lieutenant Commander Robert H. Rice in command.
After trials and training, Paddle left New London on 8 June 1943 for the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor, arriving on 5 July. She based at Pearl Harbor during her first two war patrols, between which she trained destroyers in antisubmarine warfare and received meteorological equipment.
Paddle's first patrol, from 20 July–12 September, was conducted south of Japan. She scored a hit on a large freighter in her first attack on 13 August, but alert escorts forced her down with a 13-hour depth charge attack. Enemy search planes damaged her slightly on 19 August with 7 bombs dropped as she patrolled submerged off the coast of Japan, but she repaired damage quickly and struck back, sinking Ataka Maru on 23 August.
During her second war patrol, from 17 October–9 November, Paddle took station off Nauru to provide continuous weather reporting for the carrier task force attacking the Gilbert and Marshall Islands to cover the Tarawa landings. She also guided, by radio, Army bombers in to raid Tarawa and attacked Nippon Maru off Eniwetok, though escorting destroyers forced her down before she could observe the damage inflicted on the tanker.
...
Wikipedia